WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, are teaming up in a bipartisan effort to name the Dallas VA Medical Center after former U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, who died at the end of 2023.
After receiving her nursing certificate, Johnson was hired sight unseen at Dallas’ VA hospital. She later recounted the overt racism she experienced at the hospital, where officials were shocked to discover she was Black.
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The discrimination almost drove her to quit, but she stuck with it and worked her way up to chief psychiatric nurse, the first African American to hold that position at the hospital.
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Johnson was the first registered nurse elected to Congress and the first Black woman to chair the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
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Crockett, with Johnson’s endorsement, was elected in 2022 to the Dallas-based seat Johnson represented for 30 years.
“Throughout her 30 years of service to the people of North Texas, Congresswoman Johnson was guided by her service-driven heart and compassion for Texans in need — the same qualities that fueled her work as Chief Psychiatric Nurse at the Dallas Veterans Administration Hospital for nearly two decades,” Crockett said in a news release. “Congresswoman Johnson never forgot the servicemen and women she treated there.”
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In the release, Cornyn described Johnson as a trailblazer and longtime advocate for veterans.
“This legislation to rename the VA Medical Center in Dallas in Congresswoman Johnson’s honor — nearly 70 years after she was hired as a nurse at this very hospital — would ensure her legacy of service is forever preserved,” Cornyn said.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also supports the renaming, along with U.S. Reps. Al Green, D-Houston; Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo; Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston; Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso; and Lance Gooden, R-Terrell.
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Crockett said Johnson fought to increase funding for veteran and mental healthcare from her early time as a state lawmaker to her last days in Congress.
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Johnson helped drive many of the city’s key infrastructure, transportation and flood-control initiatives. Crockett said that legacy is evident throughout the district and highlighted Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station and Eddie Bernice Johnson STEM Academy in Wilmer.
Crockett introduced the proposal last session, and it was included in an early version of a stopgap funding bill but was stripped out with many other provisions after some conservatives criticized the scope of the bill.
Jasmine Crockett, John Cornyn launch bid to name Dallas VA after Eddie Bernice Johnson
